Hello! This is my first After Action Report (AAR). It is based on the game Europa Universalis IV, the overhaul modification The Rome That Did Not Fall. If you do not know what an After Action Report is, then it is a narrative of someone's journey through a strategy game, so expect something like a BZPower Epic here.

January 18th, 395 AD: "An Empire Divided", takes place after Theodosius the Great splits the Roman Empire between his two sons and dies (one empire, two emperors). Atilla, king of the united Huns, rules a vast empire and is ready to strike greater Europe. The Hephthalites, or White Huns, have invaded Iran and the Sassanian Empire is forced to bow down before these powerful barbarians, but tensions are rising and great war looms.

September 5th, 476 AD: "The West Is No More", takes place after Ravenna and Rome, and the rest of Italia, have been taken by Germanic forces, and the emperor-in-exile Julius Nespos has been stripped of his imperial title by Emperor Zeno Leo of Konstantinopolis (abolishing Theodosius' two-emperor system), and now rules Illyria as Rex (King) Julian Nespos. [I have asked the mod-maker to give Julius Nespos the choice to restore Roman rule in Italia, but I have yet to hear a response]

November 15th, 565 AD: "All Men Must Die", takes place after the death of Justinian the Great. Emperor Justin of the Roman Empire must hold together these new lands while also fending off the great Avar horde to the north and the mighty armies of the Sassanian Empire (Iran) to the east. And from the East, the mighty Gokturk horde has recently arrived (having earlier revolted against their Avar masters and were following them west in a quest to kill all Avars), but the powerful qaghanate has splintered, one of these rebellious Turkish states emerging as the rich Khazar Kingdom. The Franks have since conquered the Roman kingdom in Gaul (renaming it Francia, or France), and the Patriarch of Rome has written the Donations of Constantine and calls himself Pantifax Maximus and Pope.

August 23rd, 634 AD: "Successors On The Rise", takes place in the beginning of the Medieval Era and the final nail-in-the-coffin to the Ancient Era. After 600 years of total war between the mighty Roman Empire and succeeding Persian Empires (most recent being the Sassanian Empire), the black flag of the Prophet Mohammed and his Caliphate, ruled by his descendants, invaded Roman and Iranian lands in order to forcefully spread the word of Allah to the ends of the Earth. There has been a brief break in the invasions, but the unstoppable Arabs and their jihad are ready to strike and create the largest empire this planet has ever seen! Can these two ancient superpowers crush this new empire, or is all lost? And to the west, the Franks rise in power, the Kingdom of Austrasia being recently founded; it is to be seen if this new Frankish kingdom will fall like those it conquered before, or will rise to become something like a new Roman Empire (hint-hint, later under Charlemagne).

I have made small adjustments to the mod. Rhomania was originally yellow and featured a yellow double-headed eagle, but this coloring was absolutely repulsive (I hate few things, I utterly hated this coloring with every fiber of my being! Dear Lord!!), and the flag was ahistorical, so the color is now a mix between Western Red and Eastern Purple (creating a royal red-violet), and the flag is replaced with something of my own. These are so much better [I have told the mod-creator these things, but he likes the horrendous yellow so I had to do the stuff on my own]. The music in the mod has also been adjusted for my own liking, with music from Rome: Total War, Gladiator, and Irfan (among others) being used along with the mod's own soundtrack. You can't hear the music but that was something I thought should be known.

This AAR will be starting with the bookmark "Successors On The Rise", and taking the role of Rhomania (Greek for Land of Romans), in my (most likely futile) effort to hold onto to Imperial lands and push back further barbarian incursions, the over-powered jihads, and restore more land to Roman light through large-scale epic battles and keen diplomacy. I will be trying to ally with my old arch enemy Iran and try to prevent them being conquered by the Muslim hordes and push back this unstoppable force while keeping the rest of Rome's holdings in-check. It will be quite the challenge!

The first chapter is currently being played through and will be written. I refuse to whitewash history, so if this setting (Successors On The Rise) is deemed too sensitive just let me know and I'll consider switching to an earlier time period. I just found it to be probably the most stressful and epic one (thus will most-likely be shorter; yay, less work for me). If Julius Nespos would have been given the choice to become an emperor again and retake Italia from Odoacer, then I would definitely be interested in doing that. If you have any idea on who to play as other then one of the representations of the Roman Empire, then do speak. I have only just started and I have no qualms on switching right now.